Longmont student wins trip to gluten-free camp

Three bites and he's out. That's all of the gluten that Sage Driscoll, 11, is allowed in a day.

The Longmont student has been eating gluten-free for nearly a year since his mother, Linda Driscoll-Powers, determined that gluten was causing her son to be distracted and uncooperative.

After seeing drastic improvements in Sage's behavior, grades and overall health, Driscoll-Powers said, the three-bite rule went into effect.

"He gets three bites to be like the other kids and eat something he normally doesn't," Driscoll-Powers said. "That's what we use for those times that it's just too much to resist."

In August, Sage won't have to count his bites when he attends a summer camp for gluten-free kids in Seattle.

Sage Driscoll makes a gluten free tortilla, egg, cheese, ham and spinach burrito with help from his mother Linda Driscoll-Powers Wednesday at their home in Longmont. (Matthew Jonas / Longmont Times-Call)

Sage won a trip to the camp through a national contest hosted by Boulder-based Rudi's Gluten-Free Bakery.

Students wrote 100 words about why they wanted to go to a gluten-free camp and 10 students were chosen nationwide.

"I want to go to the camp where I can be with other kids who are like me," Sage said, "where I feel like I belong."

Birthday parties at school and sleepovers are difficult for Sage, who has to implement the three-bite rule for most cakes.

Driscoll-Powers said she is excited for Sage to spend a week at a camp where she doesn't have to worry about what he's eating.

Sage said he does miss eating some foods, especially funnel cakes, but all of the work has been worth it to feel better. And some of the new foods aren't so bad, he said.

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Gluten-free pizza, sandwiches and burritos are some of Sage's favorite healthy foods.

Sage's favorite recipe is a burrito with a Rudi's tortilla filled with cheese, ham, spinach from his home garden and eggs from the family's chickens.

Sage Driscoll makes a gluten free tortilla, egg, cheese, ham and spinach burrito Wednesday at his home in Longmont. Driscoll won a national essay competition hosted by Boulder-based gluten free and organic bread company Rudi's. Driscoll will be going to summer camp at Camp Sealth on Vashon Island in Seattle, Washington. (Matthew Jonas / Longmont Times-Call)

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